It is around the time people starting to receive their six hundred dollar stimulus checks from last year’s tax return. What are the checks stimulating, you ask? Purchases, or otherwise known as consumption, which is considered the driving force behind a capitalist economy. With the skyrocketed oil price, we are experiencing a noticeable economic recession. To lighten up the market atmosphere, despite a gigantic deficit in the national budget, the government decides to print more currency and issue everybody some extra cash to buy something nice. As anyone with basic knowledge of economics would know, excess supply decreases the price/value of a good, and currency is no exception. Overflowing of money supply undermines the purchase power of the very financial instrument, which could eventually exacerbate the recession. This is a classic textbook nightmare in economics, and we are a fortunate generation to witness it happening.
Consumption nowadays equals the economic action to satisfy personal desires. The desires to fulfill our needs are inarguably legitimate, which may very well be the propelling force behind scientific advancement for the fundamental betterment of our lives. However, when desires turn into wants and greed, the rationale becomes questionable. We have reasonably sized TV’s, but some of us crave larger screens, so then we have disproportionate displays in our living areas. We have movie theatres, but some of us would like to own that cinema at home, so then we have home theatre systems and Netflix. We have friends and family reunions, but some of us want to enjoy communication at the comfort in our homes, so then we have the Internet and cell phones. These consumptions of technology have provided us with unprecedented convenience, yet our actual human community has never been so disconnected.
A paradox presents before us. Technological development undoubtedly contributes to the fundamental wellbeing of humans. However, the advancement appears to be narrow and propelled by consumption based on greed. What Rachel said in class really strikes me. “Today what manufacturers advertise in their product is no more durability but flashiness,” she stated. We have more and more sophisticated device and appliances at our disposal, but how are they going to help us when famine or epidemic hits? Are we working a forty plus hour workweek toward something we need or rather something we want? And at the end of the day, are we consuming or being consumed away by our own greed? So I ponder.
2 comments:
alright I gotta say I don't agree on the check would stimulate consumption since that would be the same as a pure tax cut so people would tend to save the 600 instead of using them. But off course the dollar's gonna be depreciate and that's what they're trying to do on purpose. Yeah and I have a big screen TV >.< ...hahaha
But economy "stimulation" means spending, not saving. If everyone saved their money even for a single month, the economy would utterly collapse. Thank goodness for big screen TVs—at least people know what they really need in life. In short, I think Rick is right in his latter speculation: we are being consumed even as we think we actively consume.
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